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Lot Essay

The tables' Etruscan-black inlay of Imperial eagle-heads tied to wings is likely to be a family badge, and so the tables might possibly have been commissioned by Paul Methuen, Lord Methuen of Corsham (d.1849). In the early 19th Century, he no doubt commissioned the stools for Corsham Court, Wiltshire which are supported by the Imperial eagle. The Imperial eagle appears in the family arms where the shield is borne on its breast (L. Harcourt, Corsham Court: A Gothick Dream, London, 1977, fig. 27).